Riots in Oakland over fatal police shooting of Oscar Grant
Jan 8 2009
Here are a few photographs and videos that I took from the protest Wednesday night in Oakland over the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant that later turned into a riot. You can also see Lane Hartwell’s photographs from the evening.
At an intersection where police divided the crowd to disperse them into smaller groups and things started to appear to calm down.
Even to the point were some of the police officers started relaxing their riot gear they were wearing and walking away.
Bertrina Grant, the Aunt of Oscar Grant calling for the prosecution of the BART officer.
As the night went on we started hearing more frustration and anger in the crowd that started showing itself more than just verbally.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums finished speaking to the crowd and walked into city hall after he had walked there from 14th street. At this point it appeared that things were dying down, but shortly shouts of “riot, riot” were heard and the night changed from an emotional and mostly peaceful protest to a series of violent riots.
We met back up with a friend who was there after she was luckily able to get to her car before the crowd damaged it. Many other cars were not so lucky and when we drove away to go to a different part of the riot we encountered the first and only instance of hostility towards us by the crowd.
…fires
We then met a photographer who was attacked by part of the crowd and tried to take his camera away. At this point I could see a group of three kids mocking a women who just ran down the street to find her car smashed.
…tear gas and then we started to hear shots fired (I’m assuming either the tear gas being fired off or rubber bullets. Some of the Oakland Police officers were caring shotguns with orange stocks labeled “less lethal” )
One arrest as Oakland police ran down a man on a bicycle tossing him to the ground as he resisted arrest.
It was very sad to witness as local businesses and personal property were damaged when only a few months earlier we were in the same area celebrating the election.
Added
Lane Hartwell’s photographs:
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View the previous article: 2400 miles later or find more in the archives.
